NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001B-0338
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001B-0338 |
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PI: Jon P. Fulbright, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, jon.fulbright@nrc.ca
Address: 5071 W. Saanich Rd, Victoria, BC V9E-2E7, Canada
Title: Signatures of Accreted Planetary Material in the Hyades
Abstract:
Recent studies of stars that host planets (Gonzalez et al 2001,
Santos et al. 2001) show that the host stars show abundance enhancement
with respect to normal disk stars. Smith et al. (2001) further showed
that a subsample of these host stars show signs of accretion of material
enhanced in refractory elements. A weakness in this study is that it
may be difficult to disentangle the effects of accretion against the
effects of galactic chemical evolution, especially in the case of
comparing individual field stars.
As a test of whether accretion of processed protoplanetary material
is a significant contributor to the surface abundances of disk stars, we
propose to determine the abundances of volatile and refractory elements
within the nearby, metal-rich Hyades open cluster. Signs of accreted
matter should show up in stars with shallow or non-existent surface
convection zones (F and early G stars), while stars with larger surface
convective zones (giants and later spectral type dwarfs) should not. An
additional advantage to working within a cluster is that the common
distance and position on color-magnitude diagram can be used to set
accurate relative atmospheric parameters, enhancing the quality of
relative abundance determinations.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001B-0338 |
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